CHOCHMAS NASHIM: LIVING MILLENNIA IN A WEEK, PART I
By: Suri Stern
A call came from Jerusalem “Eema, we need your help here, can you come?” I heard the details, and I said, “of course.”
How could I get there quickly and economically? No one was flying on the Fast of the Ninth of Av, with a stopover in Rome, [my mind said, it’s a nidcheh, after chatzot, I fast generally well…]so nu, I booked it. And that is how I found myself surrounded by Romans on the Fast of the Ninth of Av, millennia after the Romans surrounded the Jews and Jerusalem to destroy the Jewish nation, and I was on my way to Jerusalem.
I had several hours in Rome, fasting, to muse about being in Rome, exactly 33 years ago to the day I was in Rome on a kosher tour with friends. All those decades ago, we stopped at the Church of the Divine Pity, which had a verse from Jeremiah over its door in Hebrew and English, warning the Jews of G-d’s wrath if they oppose Him. This was the Church the Romans used to proselytize the Jews and force them to assimilate into Roman culture and religion.
We visited the Roman synagogue, which had prayer books dating back to the days of the Jewish exile into the diaspora after the destruction of the holy temple by among others Nevuzadaran and Titus. The siddurs showed where the Romans blackened verses which they opposed in the prayers, e.g., in the prayer of Aleinu, the words “Shehaim mishtachavim l’hevel varik/that the gentile pray to vanity,” and other verses. The Jewish spirit is felt deeply in Rome.
Finally, the Arch of Titus, which was built to pay homage to Titus for the destruction of the holy temple and the destruction of Jewish Jerusalem. One isn’t permitted to walk through it lest one pay homage to the one who destroyed holy Jerusalem. When I visited, there was scaffolding enveloping the arch. I asked the guard why there was scaffolding, and he replied that someone had defaced the arch and it was under repair. He permitted me to peek under the scaffolding, and I saw etched in a pen knife in Hebrew “Am Yisrael Chai L’olam v’aed/the nation of Israel lives forever.”
SO YOU MIGHTY ROMAN EMPIRE ARE NO LONGER, BUT THE TINY GENTLE NATION OF ISRAEL ENDURES FOREVER. I resaid Lamentations to myself in Rome, to feel what it must have been like when Jeremiah said it immediately after the destruction. I boarded the plane to Israel, and the first order of business was to see my son and his family, and the second order was to join my heilige friends who are gezunte daveners, for a trip to the kotel and kever Rachel to daven for Moshiach. As of this writing, I have utterly failed. Moshiach has not come, although I cried “ad masai/until when?”
Do you see the irony. On Tisha B’av I was surrounded by Romans, but not their Empire. I went back to my land and reversed the course of history by visiting Rachel Imainu/our foremother on the way back into the land, and not on my way out of the land, into exile. I davened at her grave:
…”Rachel stormed the world, what will she say now in this bitter and difficult exile, in which for over 1900 years we are in diaspora after diaspora, dispersed and banished to the four corners of the earth under the yoke of kings and master…O Rachel our mother, How can you rest in your grave? Arise and waken those asleep in Chevron (our forefather and foremothers), and Moses the faithful shepherd…Get up now, stand fast now, pray now before His Blessed Honor, for the remnants of the survivors of your people…who sigh and cry out, alone and plundered, lowly and disgraced…Until when, O G-d, will the tormentor revile?…Until when shall the wicked exult, while Your children are scorned to the extreme? Until when shall You not have mercy on Israel Your people…”
I went from Rome to Kever Rachel our mother and on to the kotel and prayed: “ O merciful King, that You once again be compassionate to us and to Your Sanctuary in Your abundant mercy, and rebuild it soon and magnify its glory…Draw our scattered near from among the nations, and bring in our dispersions from the ends of the earth. Bring us to Zion, Your City, in glad song, and to Jerusalem, home of Your Sanctuary, in eternal joy…”
This past Shabbos, I was in Jerusalem, as I heard the very famous words of the prophet Isaiah 40:1:
Nachamu, Nachamu Ami/Comfort, oh comfort My people, Says your G-d.” For two thousand years, Jews yearned to be on their land, in their country. I looked out on to the ancient city where I was staying, and felt how fortunate for me that I was able to reverse the course of history in one week, going from Rome on the Fast of the 9th of Av, to the Tomb of Rachel, begging her to use her influence with G-d, to return our people en masse to a redeemed and rebuilt Jerusalem with a rebuilt and rededicated holy Temple.
Rachel who cried out for her children as they were forced into exile into the diaspora. And finally, I visited the remnant of the holy temple, the Kotel/Western Wall, where I prayed for a rebuilt Temple.
OH YE GREAT ROMAN EMPIRE, you are no more, but the Nation of Israel endures. As we say in our Haggadah, on Passover: “in every generation, there are those who rise up to destroy and decimate us, and G-d saves us from their hands.” As we say in grace after meal, “uvnei Yerushalayim ir hakodesh bimhayrah biyameinu/And build Jerusalem, the holy city, quickly in our lifetime.”
Gut Shabbos.
-Suri